Cannabis Better Than Prescription Drugs?

The reason cannabis is so effective medicinally is directly related to its ability to interact with receptors in the body which inhibit inflammation and prevent disease. Cannabis does this so well, that few drugs can compete with its level of potency which come essentially with no side effects. These are just 5 diseases that are proven to respond better to cannabis than to drugs, however, there are many studies currently being conducted that may prove dozens more.

Many researchers have noted that there was “inadequate” data for decaded to determine whether smoked marijuana was safe or effective in treating symptoms of pain and preventing disease. The primary reason for the s lack of data had to do with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA, which was the only source of cannabis for research and they were blocking the most meaningful studies due to close ties with pharmaceutical companies.

This view was supported by Dr. David Bearman, the executive vice president for the Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine/Society of Cannabis Clinicians. “Part of the problem in the United States is that the NIDA has blocked almost all meaningful studies on cannabis,” Bearman said. Bearman argues that while synthetic cannabis pills do offer pain relief, marijuana is cheaper, has fewer side effects and can be more effective.

Now decades of propaganda is being reversed as scientists and the public are being exposed to the true potential of cannabis and its ability to both heal and prevent disease.

“Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality… In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume… Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.”

Cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana, inhibit tumor growth and also kill cancer cells. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive constituent (or cannabinoid) of the cannabis plant, targets cannabinoid receptors similar in function to endocannabinoids, which are cannabinoids that are naturally produced in the body and activate these receptors.

Researchers have now found that cannabidiol has the ability to ‘switch off’ the gene responsible for metastasis in an aggressive form of cancer. Importantly, this substance does not produce the psychoactive properties of the cannabis plant.

A Spanish team, led by Dr Manuel Guzmon, wanted to see whether they could prevent a form of cancer (glioblastoma multiforme) from growing by cutting off its blood supply. Glioblastoma multiforme is one of the most difficult cancers to treat – it seldom responds to any medical intervention, especially conventional methods which poisoning and primatively destroy cells such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery.

Genes associated with blood vessel growth in tumors through the production of a chemical called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) have their activity reduced when exposed to cannabinoids.

Dr Manuel Guzmon tested a cannabinoid solution of patients had glioblastoma multiforme and had not responded to chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery. The scientists took samples from them before and after treating them with a cannabinoids solution – this was administered directly into the tumor.

Amazingly, both patients experienced reduced VEGF levels in the tumor as a result of treatment with cannabinoids.

A study published in the July 2002 edition of the medical journal Blood, which found that THC and some other cannabinoids produced “programmed cell death” in different varieties of human leukemia and lymphoma cell lines, thereby destroying the cancerous cells but leaving other cells unharmed.

A study published in a 1975 edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, which showed that THC slowed the growth of lung cancer, breast cancer and virus-induced leukemia in rats.

Titled Antineoplastic activity of cannabinoids, this study was funded by the US National Institute of Health, and performed by researchers at the Medical College of Virginia. Despite the promising results, no further research was made, and the study has essentially disappeared from the scientific literature.

A 1994 study, which documented that THC may protect against malignant cancers, and which was buried by the US government. The $2 million study, funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services, sought to show that large doses of THC produced cancer in rats. Instead, researchers found that massive doses of THC had a positive effect, actually slowing the growth of stomach cancers. The rats given THC lived longer than their non-exposed counterparts.

he study was unpublished and the results hidden for almost three years, until it was finally leaked to the media in 1997. (CC#17, THC for tumors).